Stacking the Shelves: The ALITF Edition

 "Stacking the Shelves" is a weekly haul meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews and Reading Reality. It allows book buyers to share their accumulation of books with the online book-loving community.

Well, I'm in the process of moving, and I realized I have a lot more junk than I thought I did. Oof. And of course, this StS just adds to it. Yay. But honestly, these books are big ones, so I can't be too mad. I just have to figure out how to safely transport them 2.5 hours away without damaging them.

My A Light in the Flame copies arrived! I got the regular edition from Amazon, and annoyingly, the first copy I got on release day was nasty. There were black spots that looked like mold on the back page and that same page had been ripped in half. It was weird. But my replacement arrived on Thursday, the same day as both my preorder incentive and my preorder of the B&N special edition. Thursday was just a big ALITF day.

And for some reason, I decided to check out another library book like three weeks before I move. But this is a book I've heard a lot about. The Last Sun by K.D. Edwards is supposed to be really good, and I'm needing a new supernatural/urban fantasy series to fix the hangover I've got from the next series I'm going to talk about.

I downloaded the second and third books in Jex Lane's Beautiful Monsters series from Kindle Unlimited, and holy heck. This series is addicting! I've had some good times bingeing KU books in 2022; this one is one I have to get physical copies of, though. It's just that good! It's so complex and the main character reminds me of Darrow from Red Rising with the worldbuilding of Kresley Cole's Immortals After Dark and a relationship similar to C.S. Pacat's Captive Prince. I'm not sure if I'll be able to get in to another series right now because this one had me so engrossed. The hangover is so real after these books and the wait for number four is gonna be torture. I'm crossing my fingers ALITF helps.

Well, that's all for me. What books have you bought/received lately?

Stacking the Shelves: The Map of Solis Edition

 "Stacking the Shelves" is a weekly haul meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews and Reading Reality. It allows book buyers to share their accumulation of books with the online book-loving community.

Wow, have a lot of things changed in the last couple of weeks. The biggest change being that I'm moving next month because... I got a new job! And this job, I think, will allow me to rent a place with two bedrooms! That means I can have a library!!!! But, that'll come later. I'm moving back in with my parents for a bit, since they live in the area, and if I like the job, I'll then get a new place. So I may be absent in December and the next couple of months as I try to figure out life. But even though I'm moving and I'll have to pack up all my books, I still have more books coming in. Because I'm an addict.

The three physical books I got include two preorders from Barnes & Noble: Bloodmarked by Tracy Deonn and Charm by Tracy Wolff. My FairyLoot copy of These Twisted Bonds by Lexi Ryan also arrived. Will I have time to read any of these? Nope. I probably won't get to them until mid-2023 at this point. Ugh.

Next up is Dreamerwhale's FBAA gadget box. It was basically full of swag items. There was a mug of Poppy and Hawke, character cards, three page overlays, a poster with the same image as the mug on it (not pictured), and a giant Hawke book sleeve. The mug, sadly, isn't my thing and I probably won't keep the art print, since the art style just isn't my favorite. I do like the Hawke book sleeve, but I wish it came as a print instead. The character cards depict the FBAA crew in a unique way, so that's fun. And the page overlays are cute, even though I'm not a huge fan of overlays. I'd rather have a print.

And here is a print I bought from the JLA Shop. It's the Solis map of Jennifer L. Armentrout's FBAA world. It was smaller than I thought it would be, but I'm excited to have it. I'm crossing my fingers that in my new place I'll have room to display it with all my FBAA editions. *Squee!*.

Now on to the ebooks. I randomly decided to download Captive by Jex Lane from Kindle Unlimited. It's got a bit of a straightforward writing style that I wish was slightly more flowery, but it's still pretty addicting. I'm about 20% in right now and I think I'll finish it over the weekend. I also bought The Cottage by Ariana Nash. It's a novella set in the Prince's Assassin world.

Well, that's all for me. What books have you bought/received lately?

The 2022 End of the Year Book Tag

2022 is almost over. Holy cow that went by fast! It's been a pretty quiet year overall. Just working, sleeping, and reading. I do have some big life changes happening at the end of 2022, but right now, everything is quiet. 2022, the quiet year. But I did have some fun trips to D.C. and Disneyland in 2022. That's all that matters, right?

We only have a few weeks left, so I thought I’d do the End of the Year Book Tag. Even though it's pretty late. I’m not sure who this tag was created by, but I found the questions on Green Tea & Paperbacks blog. So, let’s get this party started!

Are there any books you started this year that you need to finish?

A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin. But I've kind of given up on getting this one done before the end of the year. The other is Wild Lands by Stacey Marie Brown. I may or may not get to this one as well. We shall see.

Do you have an autumnal book to transition into the end of the year?

It's already autumn, so I'm cheating and basically saying the books that I already plan to read this season that give me autumnal vibes. I feel like rereading A Shadow in the Ember and reading A Light in the Flame by Jennifer L. Armentrout are somewhat autumnal.

Is there a new release you’re still waiting for?

Yes! Zodiac Academy #8, Sorrows and Starlight! Next up would probably be A Light in the Flame. It's not one I'm most excited for, but I think it'll still be a great read.

What are three books you want to read before the end of the year?

Nevernight by Jay Kristoff
A Curse of Queens by Amanda Bouchet
A Light in the Flame by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Is there a book you think could still shock you and become your favorite book of the year?

Not necessarily my favorite book of the year, but I might have a couple that make their way to second or third place. Current contenders are Sorrow and Starlight and the Kingdom of the Wicked sequels.

Have you already started making reading plans for 2023?

Yep. I have to finish reading A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin. I already know I'm not going to make the goal of finishing it by the end of the year. I'm on page 800-something out of 1,100-something as of this post, so yeah... Not happening in 2022. I also would like to read the last book in The Poppy War series, The Burning God, as well Broken Bonds by J. Bree. I also want to catch up on my FairyLoot special editions.

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Alright, there you have it. My End of the Year Book Tag answers. What would your answers to these questions be? Let me know in the comments below!

October Wrap-Up & November TBR

October wasn't nearly as chaotic as September, thankfully. But it still wasn't the best month ever. I'm just kind of behind on everything lately. I am excited that I've gotten back into reading, though. Now, I just need to read more books that I actually own and not ones that are on Kindle Unlimited.

In this wrap-up, I’ll list the books I read, the books I reviewed, the books I bought/received, and my TBR for next month. Now, let’s get this bookish party started!

Books Read in October

Frostbite: reread

The Emperor of Evening Stars: 4 stars

Prince and Assassin: 3.5 stars (KU ebook)

Prince in Disguise: 4 stars (KU ebook)

King of the Dark: 4 stars (KU ebook)

Reign of Darkness: 4 stars (KU ebook)

Curse of the Dark Prince: 3 stars (KU ebook)

The Cottage: 3 stars (KU ebook)

I read six books and two novellas in October, which is a lot better than last month and the month before. I think I may be getting my reading groove back. Woohoo! Only two of the books/novellas were physical copies, Frostbite by Richelle Mead and The Emperor of Evening Stars by Laura Thalassa, the novella set in Laura Thalassa's Bargainer world. Frostbite was a reread for my book club and to prep for the TV show, which I've decided I don't think I'll ever actually watch. It looks so bad compared to the books. Now, as for the rest of the books, five in total, they were all Kindle Unlimited reads. This includes Prince and Assassin and Prince in Disguise by Tavia Lark and King of the Dark, Reign of Darkness, and Curse of the Dark Prince by Ariana Nash. I also had to purchase the novella that's set in the same world as Ariana Nash's Prince's Assassin series on Kindle. It's called The Cottage. So counting everything, I read eight books/novellas. None of which I owned prior to 2022 (not counting Frostbite, since it's a reread). But, I think it was good for me to get back into reading by just bingeing some fun books vs. trying to force myself to read stuff on my shelves. Even though I know there's some good books stacked there; they just weren't what I was in the mood for.

Books Bought/Received in October

I didn't buy a ton of books in October, but a lot of preorders did come in, some of which only charged this month. So... I guess I did buy a lot. In October, I bought 11 books, two were ebooks and nine were physical books. The Kingdom of the Wicked boxset and the Red, White, and Royal Blue collector's edition were both preordered from Barnes & Noble, which means I was charged in October. Same for A Curse of Queens, which I preordered from Amazon. Amazon.fr (French), charged me for FBAA in October too. I also have my October YA FairyLoot book that I was charged for in October. As for ebooks, I bought The Cottage novella as well as Hell Hath No Fury, an anthology featuring a story from the authors of the Zodiac Academy series. Oh, and I preordered the FairyLoot Crescent City editions that won't arrive until next year.

Now, I do have some preorders that arrived that I paid for in earlier months. Those include FairyLoot's edition of The Blood Traitor and their September Adult Book, Spells for Forgetting. Also, I ordered a copy of The Power on eBay that turned out to be an ARC and not a finished copy. I contacted the seller and they gave me my money back. I still have the ARC, so I need to figure out what I'm going to do with it. My replacement edition of Illumicrate's TWOTQ and my five-months late LitJoy Twin Crowns copy also arrived. In total, I received 14 books this month. But I did buy 11 books in October overall, some just won't arrive for a while.

Currently Obsessed With

Well, I finished my rewatch of The Office, so I decided to rewatch Parks & Rec next. I've watched it a couple of times already, but it's been a couple years since the last rewatch. But I actually have been watching a lot of new TV shows and movies, which is very exciting for someone who barely watches anything new anymore.

Well, first off, I'm going to start with the bad. I could not finish Hocus Pocus 2. I got halfway through and gave up. It was awful. I'll just pretend it doesn't exist. However, season one of House of the Dragon ended in October, and I found that to be awesome! I have a few minor issues with the season overall, but nothing that detracts from my anticipation of season two. Unfortunately, it's gonna be a looooong wait. As for new shows, I binge-watched The Legend of Vox Machina early on in the month. This was a fun adult cartoon based on Critical Role, which I barely know anything about. I think it's a podcast group that plays D&D...? Anyway, season two comes out in January, so that's exciting. I also went and watched Black Adam with my parents. It was fun. Nothing new, but it was a decent addition to the DC superhero lineup. Sadly, DC's League of Super Pets, also starring Dwayne Johnson, was not good. At all. It was a terrible film, even for kids. Yikes. It was another one I watched with my parents, but on HBO Max instead of in theaters. And before those two, I watched The School for Good and Evil on Netflix with my mom. It was good. Could've been better.

November TBR

More repeats in November's TBR. Oops for the umpteenth time. I'm just not good at TBRs this year. For book club purposes, I need to read Amanda Bouchet's A Curse of Queens. I also still need to read my NetGalley ARC of Monsters Born and Made by Tanvi Berwah, which I actually needed to review back in September. Shame on me! I also need to reread A Shadow in the Ember, so I remember what happened when I read A Light in the Flame when it releases later this month. Oh, and I have some library books to read. They include Lightlark, Ledge, and You're a Mean One, Matthew Prince. I would like to finish The Bargainer series as well. I'm currently reading the last book in my giant omnibus. And, I want to reread Kingdom of the Wicked so I can read the other two books in the trilogy. I am also continuing, and failing at, my year-long read of A Storm of Swords.

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Okay, well, that's the month of October, plus some November sneak peeks, all wrapped up into one post. Do you have a wrap-up post for last month? If so, share in the comments!